Pearl Fey is a member of a branch family of the Fey clan. She is the daughter of Morgan Fey, who lost her claim to the title of Master to her younger sister Misty. Pearl is a prodigy among spirit mediums, having "intense spiritual power", and also having knowledge of the Fey clan that exceeds that of Misty's daughter Maya, who is expected to assume the title of Master. Though Pearl and Maya have a very close, amicable relationship, Morgan, in her attempts to regain her main family status, attemptedtwice to get rid of Maya in order to place Pearl in position to become the Master instead.

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Up until she met Phoenix Wright, Pearl Fey had never been outside of Kurain Village, living only with her mother Morgan and her older cousins Maya and Mia of the lineage of the Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique, until Mia left Kurain Village to pursue her career as a defense attorney. She never knew her father because he left shortly after she was born. She has grown up around bad marriages, which has been used to explain her fascination with a romantic pairing between Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey.

She would often play with Maya using her ball or hiding in the family's large clothing box in which the ball was kept. She also became a fan of children's book author Elise Deauxnim.

Pearl first met Phoenix Wright when he first visited the village bringing Turner Grey to Maya to channel a spirit. She was playing with her ball with Maya, but she quickly ran away when Wright tried to speak with her. While the channeling was taking place, Pearl played with her ball in the Winding Way. However, she accidentally hit the Sacred Urn containing the spirit of Ami Fey and broke it. She tried to glue it back together, but she mixed up the letters to spell "I AM" instead of "AMI". She was afraid that she would be banished for breaking a sacred treasure of the village, so she kept her little crime a secret.

Pearl met Wright again after Grey was murdered; Wright found her in the Winding Way and immediately spotted that she was holding the unique key for the Channeling Chamber, which she had found in the incinerator, but she still avoided him. However, after showing Pearl Maya's magatama, she burst into tears, upset about Maya being accused of Grey's murder. She then realized that he was the "Mr. Nick" that Maya often mentioned and because of this, Pearl assumed that Wright and Maya were in a romantic relationship (or as Pearl put it "Mystic Maya's special someone"). She immediately became friendly towards Wright, eager to help him however she could. Pearl gave Wright the key in her possession and charged the magatama with spiritual energy.

Pearl followed around in Wright's investigation of Fey Manor, meeting Dick Gumshoe for the first time, and acted as a tutor for Wright in the use of the magatama and the breaking of Psyche-Locks when they encountered "Ini Miney". However, when Wright left to visit Maya in the detention center, Pearl stayed behind, as she had never left the village before. She asked Wright to say "hi" for her, then ran off again.

Pearl later showed up in the defendant lobby before Maya's trial, worried about her cousin. She had sneaked out of the village, using a map to find her way. Wright was shocked that Pearl had walked all the way to the courthouse, since it was a two hour train journey. Pearl corrected him as she had not walked, but ran, not knowing anything about a "tray-in".

When Wright began to struggle in court, Pearl channeled her older cousin Mia to help him out. Although it was a desperate battle with prosecutor Franziska von Karma, Wright was able to prove that Maya must have left the crime scene before her arrest due to the key that Pearl had given her. This ended the trial for the day to allow more evidence to be gathered.

Back in the lobby, Maya was very impressed that Pearl could summon Mia. Maya asked Wright to take Pearl back home, this time on the train.

Upon their return to Kurain Village, Pearl thanked Wright for escorting her home. The young spirit medium was furious at the way von Karma had "bullied" Mystic Maya and was determined to give her a piece of her mind the next time they met. Wright and Pearl talked about the real murderer, with Pearl seeming sad for some reason. Upon further questioning, Pearl suddenly declared that she "didn't see anything" and when Wright asked her what she was doing at the time of the murder, she stammered that she "w-wasn't d-doing a-anything". Suddenly two Psyche-Locks appeared, but without enough evidence, Wright was forced to leave them for the moment.

Pearl and her ball.

Wright would eventually return, having figured out what had happened to the Sacred Urn. Wright agreed not to tell Pearl's mother what happened. Not long after, Morgan went with the police, having offered herself as a witness against Maya Fey. Although Pearl tried to stop the police from taking her mother away, Morgan told her that she was only going to be away for a short while. Pearl then asked to go with her mother, but was told to stay and protect the manor. Despite this, she joined Wright and Maya in the defendant lobby the next day, telling them not to worry since her mother was coming to show her "support". Wright, having figured out Morgan's role in the murder, asked Pearl to channel Mia before the trial, so she wouldn't have to see what her mother was really going to do.

"Ini Miney" was arrested the next day for the murder of Turner Grey following Wright's defense of Maya, and because of Morgan's role as an accomplice, she was sent to prison, effectively leaving Pearl Fey alone. Morgan had conspired with Miney to kill Grey and have Maya blamed for it, enabling Pearl to inherit the title of Master of Kurain. With no other known relatives, Wright and Maya essentially became Pearl's guardians, showing her the world outside of Kurain Village. They took her to the Berry Big Circus to see Max Galactica, who would end up being charged with murder.

Nine months after Turner Grey's death, Wright, Maya, and Pearl were invited to the Hero of Heroes Grand Prix at the Gatewater Imperial Hotel. However, it would be cut short because of the murder of Juan Corrida. It quickly went from bad to worse when Wright received a transceiver from a hired assassin named "De Killer," who revealed that he had kidnapped Maya, and his ransom was for Wright to get a "not guilty" verdict for Matt Engarde, who was arrested for the crime. With Maya kidnapped, Pearl became Wright's investigative partner for the case. Pearl also used her channeling abilities with Maya and Mia to form a "network" of sorts; Maya would channel Mia, who would gather information about where she was, then Pearl would channel Mia, who would then relay the information to Wright. Wright was eventually able to show De Killer that Engarde had planned to betray him. At this, the assassin released Maya and vowed to hunt down Engarde. Fearing for his life, Engarde pled guilty. Wright, Pearl, and Maya were reunited shortly afterwards.

Pearl played a small role in Wright's next case. A number of Kurain Village's treasures, including the Sacred Urn, were to be displayed at Lordly Tailor, a very well-known department store. However, prior to the event, the infamous thief Mask☆DeMasque stole the Sacred Urn. When Ron DeLite turned himself in as the thief, Wright took his case despite Pearl being a "victim" of this crime. Wright's defense against the charge of theft was successful, but this led to another charge for the murder of a business CEO, which Wright also took and won. Between the two trials, the Sacred Urn was recovered, now (almost) restored to its original form. Pearl, Maya and Wright eventually found out that the director of the Kurain Treasures event, Adrian Andrews, had broken the Urn, but put it back together again. At the conclusion of Ron's trial, Pearl physically attacked Wright, knocking him out, believing him to be cheating on Maya with his client's wife, although she was merely thanking him for saving her husband.

Pearl later became involved in another one of her mother's plots to make her head of Kurain. While visiting her mother at a penitentiary, Morgan told her about instructions for her that were hidden at her home in Kurain, and she told her to follow them for the good of the Fey clan. The instructions were to bring Maya to Hazakura Temple and channel Dahlia Hawthorne there. Unknown to Pearl, however, this was once again part of Morgan's plan to remove Maya from the Master's seat, this time by killing her.

On February the 7th, Pearl introduced Maya and Wright to Hazakura Temple, booking them places there. Both agreed to go, as it would give Maya a chance to improve her spiritual powers, though Wright seemed to be uninterested for a brief moment. At the temple, Pearl met Elise Deauxnim as well as the two nuns there, Bikini (the head) and Iris. The group had roast dinner that night, before Maya was to begin her training at the Inner Temple.

Though Deauxnim invited Pearl to come read with her, Pearl went to the Inner Temple, worried about Maya, who was taking the temple's very dangerous Special Course, and feeling responsible for introducing her to Hazakura Temple. She then attempted to channel Dahlia Hawthorne, but was unsuccessful. Misunderstanding the meaning of the words "gravely" and "roast" in the instructions, she brought the gravy from the night's dinner to the temple and proceeded to wait in the Inner Temple for Maya to finish her training, falling asleep during her wait. Later that night, lightning destroyed the bridge leading to the Inner Temple, trapping her and Maya there.

When Pearl woke up, Maya had disappeared. Upset, Pearl burned the letters containing her mother's instructions in the nearby incinerator (albeit only partially), and covered the hanging scroll depicting Misty Fey in gravy. She attempted unsuccessfully to channel Hawthorne again in the morning, and felt her failure to channel her to be due to a weakening of her spiritual powers.

The bridge was repaired on February the 9th, and Pearl was reunited with Wright, who at the time was working with Franziska von Karma. Remembering her as the prosecutor from the Grey murder case, Pearl angrily told von Karma that she was nothing more than a little girl without her whip, and vowed never to forgive her for her behavior toward Maya. This outburst was enough to leave the prosecutor temporarily speechless. When Wright tried to question Pearl, she became tearful and ran off with Deauxnim's student Larry Butz to the Heavenly Hall, which they dubbed the Loser's Shack. Eventually, however, Wright was able to find out about the failed channeling attempts. It turned out that Elise Deauxnim, who was really the Master of Kurain Misty Fey, had channeled Hawthorne instead, in an attempt to foil Morgan's plan.

Pearl once again channeled Mia to help Wright. Misty Fey had been murdered on the night of the 7th, and Wright was representing Iris against the subsequent murder charge. The trial eventually revealed that Maya had been channeling Hawthorne ever since the night of Misty's murder. After the trial, Pearl ran to the temple and cleaned all the gravy from Misty's portrait. Wright and Maya eventually caught up with her and reassured her that no one blamed her for what had happened to the Master of Kurain.

One month after the incident at Hazakura Temple, Pearl was taken on a trip to Gatewater Land by Wright and Maya. During their visit, the three went on a row boat ride together. Unbeknownst to them, Miles Edgeworth was also in the theme park, although he was having far less fun than the trio most likely were.

Pearl kept in touch with Wright and co. for the next eight years, during which he was disbarred and adopted a girl a year younger than Pearl named Trucy. Pearl sometimes visited the agency and Trucy came to look up to her as a sister figure. She also appears to have developed a more relaxed relationship with Edgeworth over the years, as noted by his using Wright's nickname for her. Eight years after his disbarment, Wright was exonerated and reinstated as an attorney.

Eight years after Pearl's visit to Gatewater Land, she visited Shipshape Aquarium with her summer camp. However, during her visit, she got separated from the rest of her group and went down the wrong corridor, which was a staff-only area. She then ran into the animal keeper Marlon Rimes, knocking all the fish he was preparing onto the floor, as well as the identical calendars they each had. The calendar she received (which belonged to the resident vet Herman Crab) later became an important piece of evidence.

Later, Jack Shipley, the owner of Shipshape Aquarium, was found murdered, and Pearl was one of the people at the aquarium who were questioned by the police. After they were done with her, she eventually ran into Athena Cykes and Wright while Cykes was chasing after the penguin Rifle. After introducing herself to Cykes, she recharged Wright's magatama, which had finally run out of spiritual energy after being charged by Pearl during their first meeting. She then returned Rifle to Rimes, who was looking for her. Pearl watched Wright at court the next day defending the aquarium's orca Orla from the murder charge. Although he managed to get Orla acquitted, Sasha Buckler was soon arrested instead.

After Orla's trial, Pearl took a more active role in Wright's investigation, this time bringing the forensics (or, as she called it, "forensicking") equipment that Wright had received from Ema Skye. During their investigation, Pearl accidentally sprayed luminol on Orla, and found blood on both her and a skull rock prop. They later encountered Rimes at the show pool, and, while Wright and Cykes questioned Rimes, Pearl investigated the area on her own, finding fingerprints on the ladder in a strange position, as if the right hand had grabbed the left side from above. She told Rimes that she would stay and watch Orla that night, and requested Rimes's TV phone.

The next day, during Buckler's trial, Wright contacted Pearl, saying that he was about to cross-examine Orla, so the TV phone was needed to broadcast from the orca pool. During the cross-examination, Pearl found videos of Azura Summers training an orca on Rimes's phone, which allowed her to get Orla to do tricks despite not being an orca trainer. This proved to be pivotal in proving that Rimes had killed Shipley and tried to frame Orla for the death. The prints that Pearl had found turned out to belong to Rimes, and showed that he had actually tried to save Shipley's life. The death had been accidental.

A few months later, Pearl visited the Shipshape Aquarium with Wright, Cykes, Apollo Justice, and Trucy to watch the new show.

Pearl later visited the Wright Anything Agency to deliver a letter from Maya and help out with the cleaning. She found herself alone in the office until Wright arrived, dejected. Pearl learned that Athena Cykes had been arrested, but her appearance and Maya's letter gave Wright a renewed conviction. Pearl accompanied Wright in his investigation of the UR-1 Incident along with Miles Edgeworth, and witnessed Cykes's black Psyche-Locks when she was asked whether she had killed her mother on that fateful day.

Pearl did some research on the black Psyche-Locks, and told Wright that she had learned that said locks represent a subconscious secret the bearer holds that may be unknown even to them, and could cause permanent damage to their psyche if Wright attempted to force the secret out. Pearl went to support Cykes during the trial as Wright faced Edgeworth alone, and watched the proceedings from the gallery once Cykes took the defense's bench and witness stand. Cykes was eventually cleared of all charges, and Pearl joined the group at Guy Eldoon's noodle stand to celebrate. Pearl later visited the agency again, only to find that her efforts at cleaning up the office had been wasted as the slovenly habits of the others quickly messed it all up again. She became determined to clean up their "attitudes" in preparation for a visit from Maya after her training ended.

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Pearl was present in Kurain Village when Apollo Justice visited it with Dhurke Sahdmadhi. While there, Justice questioned her about a cave that he and Sahdmadhi were searching for, but she was hesitant to answer because she had promised Professor Archie Buff to keep it a secret. Justice pointed out her tell and she gave in, giving them directions to where they needed to go while she waited with Trucy.

After Maya was rescued from her misadventures in Khura'in, Pearl promised to help her out in Kurain Village in any way she could. She suggested that they put clothing stores in the village, but was disheartened when Maya pointed out that they had more pressing matters to attend to, meaning that her makeover would have to wait.

As a child, Pearl was quiet around strangers and would run from any whom she encountered. Even if strangers greeted Pearl nicely, or even if Maya herself introduced them to her, it took a long time to gain her trust. This was due to her overprotective, overbearing mother teaching her to do this whenever a suspicious-looking person tried to talk to her. Morgan would spank Pearl if she misbehaved and refused to allow her daughter to grow out her hair like her role model, Maya. Wright has noted that Pearl's speech, and even her laugh, were refined in tone.

Nonetheless, Pearl is usually cheerful, kind, and innocent around people she knows, and most people who encounter her describe her as cute. That said, she does have, in Wright's words, "one intense stare". She also at one point managed to tell Franziska von Karma off to the point that the normally fiery-tempered prosecutor was left speechless. Pearl also takes after Maya, Mia, and Iris as a teen by copying some of their body language, and even modified her normal hairstyle with a hair bauble similar to Maya's. She has a similar fiery streak to Maya, but is always willing to help and is still very polite, kind, and courteous to a fault, which Apollo Justice thought made it hard to say no to her.

Pearl has very little knowledge about the world outside her village, and is unfamiliar with terms that people in mainstream society take for granted (e.g. "...law...yer?"). This was especially apparent when she was a child, though she was a big fan of picture book author Elise Deauxnim, as well as watching Kids' Masterpiece Theatre every Sunday. As a teenager, Pearl's speech has somewhat modernized, and she appears to be more familiar with everyday terms and colloquialisms of the 21st century. However, she still struggles with modern technology and mispronounces some words (such as calling forensics "forensicking"). Despite enjoying her life in the village, she also relishes going into the city to do common teenage activities such as going to the mall and shopping.

As a child, Pearl quickly became upset if she thought Wright was acting too friendly with any woman other than Maya. She would then glare at Wright or slap him, often repeatedly and sometimes even knocking him out. She was very sensitive concerning love between a couple, due to having grown up around unhappy marriages, including that of her own parents. Pearl was thoroughly convinced that Wright and Maya were destined to be together forever, often hinting at their supposed "love", and referring to Wright as Maya's "special someone", as well as getting angry when she felt Wright was being unfaithful towards Maya.

Owing to her considerable spiritual powers, Pearl is considered a spirit medium prodigy, although her abilities are still not as strong as those of Misty. Nonetheless, Pearl looks up to Maya a great deal and wishes to be like her someday, and as of 2028, Pearl is still the only other medium in Kurain who can channel spirits. Pearl is very sensitive about certain topics, such as how young she looks despite being a teenager and how she is not good at arts and crafts; this latter weakness can be clearly seen in her attempt to piece the Sacred Urn back together or her painting of Kurain Village at night, with the latter being mistaken for a child's scribbles.

The "sato" in her Japanese surname may come from the word "village" or "home country", whilst the "aya" part has no particular meaning.

Her Japanese given name, "Harumi" (春美), contains the kanji for "spring" (haru) and "beauty" (mi).

Her English given name "Pearl" is based on the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Said novel deals with the guilt of a woman in 17th-century Boston who has an illegitimate child, whose name is Pearl.[1]

"Fey" comes from the word "fey" which can mean "magical", "fairy-like", "strange", "otherworldly", or "spellbound". It may also come from Morgan le Fay, the sorceress from the legend of King Arthur.

Other than Ami Fey, Pearl is the only spirit medium Fey clan member whose name doesn't start with "M" in all non-Japanese versions of the Ace Attorney games.

Pearl was originally characterized as a snooty rival spirit medium who was about the same age as Maya and would only appear in Reunion, and Turnabout. However, another designer suggested that she be much younger to add to the drama. Shu Takumi found the resulting character adorable and wrote her into other episodes.[2] In the final product, the rivalry is only acknowledged and acted on by Morgan, with Pearl being too young and in awe of her older cousin to understand her mother's motives.

Being a fellow Fey, her outfit was designed to be very similar to Maya's.[3]

To make her stand out from the other characters in the series, she was designed to expresses her emotions guilelessly.[3]

Each member of the Fey clan wears orbs on a necklace around their necks, with the number of orbs representing the progress of their training. In Pearl's case, she wears four, the same as Maya did in the original Ace Attorney trilogy.[3]

In Bridge to the Turnabout, Pearl has a five Psyche-Lock pattern that is distinct from other characters, arranged in an arrowhead shape over her head, rather than in the typical 3+2 row configuration, which would obscure the child's face. It is not until Turnabout Reclaimed, now as a teenager, that the central lock (the one that would have previously obscured her face) moves to its usual position.

In the Japanese version, it is kanji that Pearl has problems with, rather than just spelling in the English localization.